


Triangle

by Kiterie



Series: Formspring Drabbles [26]
Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-28
Updated: 2011-06-28
Packaged: 2017-11-28 04:33:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/670313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiterie/pseuds/Kiterie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Falling in love isn't always easy, falling out of it is harder, realizing you don't have to sometimes that's the hardest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Triangle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Serani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serani/gifts).



> Question: If your love life got boring, would you think about a threesome? If so, who would you want to join you in your bedroom?

When he first saw Kakashi again after years of being separated, due to their change in positions when Kakashi took on a genin team, his heart hadn't changed. He had almost hoped it would, that time would make it easier and he would forget or maybe find the courage he'd lacked all the years they'd known each other. It still skipped though and his chest still felt impossibly tight at the sight of him. His breath was still stolen along with the words that were always on the tip of his tongue. Every little teasing jibe from his senpai, his mentor, his crush made the feelings that much stronger, and Kakashi had picked the habit back up immediately. It was almost like time hadn't passed. Like he hadn't  been painfully separated from the person he loved for over four years.

It had though and Kakashi had changed. Tenzou could see that, and he could also see that it was for the better. He had thought at first that it was his team, and he still thought that was part of it. The minute Naruto had mentioned 'Iruka-sensei' though, he'd seen it. If he hadn't known Kakashi for as long as he had _maybe_ he'd have missed it, _maybe_ he could have ignored it. The barely visible twitch of his mask that indicated a smile even though it showed no where else and was likely invisible to most everyone.

He couldn't help it; he'd been jealous.

It started as denial. He told himself that they were just friends because they were both Naruto's teachers and cared about him. It didn't work. The first time he saw them together in the mission room it was obvious. Even with most of Kakashi's face hidden it was there in the way his attention never left Iruka. The smile Iruka gave Kakashi was even brighter than the one he gave Naruto, and his eyes lingered on Kakashi longer than was necessary. Kakashi also forgot to introduce him which only made the jealousy worse. When Iruka introduced himself and knew who he was he'd thought maybe Kakashi had mentioned him only to have that hope dashed a moment later when Iruka said Naruto had told him all about him and the ghoul eyes. When he'd fixed the expression on the bright-eyed, far too cheerful to be sane chunin, he'd just laughed and thought 'Yamato' was demonstrating the expression for his benefit.

The feeling moved to anger next. He'd been Kakashi's friend for years. He'd been his comrade; they'd saved each other's lives more times than he could count. It wasn't fair that Kakashi had fallen for anyone else. It infuriated him, and he hated Iruka for it, hated himself, and even hated Kakashi. It had passed quickly because he could never truly hate Kakashi. Worse, he realized he couldn't hate a man like Iruka. Every time they ran into each other Iruka smiled at him and talked to him with respect and admiration over how hard he worked with Naruto. He complimented him and laughed over how he'd handled the situation between the kids and Sai. The way he smiled at him made it impossible not to smile back. It drove him crazy until he decided he simply couldn't avoid the truth. He understood why Kakashi loved Iruka. The man was _warm_ like nothing else.

Depression set in after that. It was his fault, and he knew it, and no amount of wishing could take back all of the years just so he could have his chance to tell Kakashi again would ever make it happen. He had failed and let the moments slip by because he'd been a coward, and he hadn't thought Kakashi would be interested in him because he was a man. Kakashi read Jiraiya's porn, and it had seemed an impossible chance. To know that it wasn't, that Kakashi was open to a relationship with another man, it felt like his chest was caving in on him for an entirely new reason. To make things worse, at least at first, Iruka had been the one to seek him out and try and cheer him up. _Iruka_ , of all people, had pulled him away from the bar he was at to make sure he'd get home safely and not end up face down in a gutter. It hadn't even taken more than a few days for Iruka to do so. He had truly believed then that it would only get worse though he wasn't sure where you went from there. There didn't seem to be a down from where he was looking.

Iruka hadn't taken him back to his apartment though, he'd taken him home. Kakashi had been there and down had suddenly appeared. Tenzou knew he wasn't a good drunk. The entire walk home he'd sung random 'happy' songs to make himself feel better. Iruka had even sung with him. The moment he saw Kakashi though he turned on Iruka irritated and blaming him for his frustrations, too drunk to even edit the fact that he was in love with Kakashi out. At some point he'd tried to push Iruka away, failed and nearly fell over only to have the man catch him. His drunken, stupid anger spilled over onto Kakashi, and every little irritating thing the man had ever done seemed to come to mind and fall out of his mouth in the following instant. That had somehow slipped quickly into him sniffling and crying like an idiot which was a new side of drunkeness for him. It was equally as lousy and pathetic though. Maybe it was what needed to happen, but when Iruka pulled him over to the couch and into his arms it had seemed a rather bastardly thing to do.

Now, sitting on the couch with Iruka's arms around him and Kakashi maskless and looking mildly concerned beside him, Tenzou wasn't sure what he was going to do. He felt like an asshole. He hadn't actually wanted to get in the way. He liked Iruka. He was nice, and it was simply impossible not to. If the man hadn't been loyal, dedicated, and caring as both a shinobi and his senpai's lover maybe he wouldn't have cared if he hurt the man, but he was and he did. Maybe if he, himself, was less honorable he'd have considered it a real option and done something to split the two up, but then he wouldn't have deserved Kakashi anyway. His intoxication induced stupidity had, he was fairly certain, just ruined any chance he had of maintaining a friendship with either of them.

Tenzou wiped his face, pushed himself back from Iruka and stared at the floor between his feet. He wanted to throw up, and it had nothing to do with how much he had drank.

"Feel better?" Iruka asked, his voice calm and without even the slightest note of anger or irritation.

At least, Tenzou didn't hear pity in it. The only thing that could have been worse would have been that. "No." He wondered if he could blame it on the alcohol and pretend not to remember it in the morning.

"Mah, of course he doesn't. Tenzou isn't used to you yet." Kakashi smacked him on the back. "I keep telling you you're a horrible drunk. Asuma is sick of listening to you too."

Hearing his real name caught his attention immediately and he turned to glare at Kakashi. "SENPAI!"

Kakashi shrugged, leaned back against the couch, and picked up the book in his lap.

"Stop worrying I have clearance." Iruka leaned over, reaching behind Tenzou's back and smacked Kakashi on the head. "You could have mentioned that to him at some point before," he scolded.

Not even looking up, Kakashi waved a hand dismissively at Iruka.

"I've had the required clearance since I accepted the responsibility of being Naruto's home room teacher. I saw yours and Sai's file before the two of you were appointed to the team. Lady Tsunade wanted my opinion," Iruka explained.

He hadn't expected that, and Tenzou stared, unblinking and trying to connect the two facts. It made sense though, given that everyone seemed to respect Iruka, he just hadn't realized how much respect the hokage herself had for him. He'd only seen the parts of Iruka's file that directly related to Naruto and Tenzou wondered at the differences there. His brain was still too foggy to figure it out, but he was together enough to know it meant there was more to Iruka than he knew.

"I knew you liked Kakashi," Iruka stated, turning the conversation back to the uncomfortable part it had momentarily departed. "It's obvious."

Tenzou stared, half-afraid saying anything like he was would make things worse.

"It's fine." Iruka smiled and looked from him to Kakashi and then back to him. "I wondered what you'd do about it, especially after _somebody_ decided it would be funny to try and bait you into something. Ass." The last comment was clearly directed at Kakashi and accompanied with an eye roll.

"Mah, my way was more fun."

Tenzou felt his cheeks warm at the knowledge that Kakashi had been doing it, 'flirting' with him, intentionally.

Iruka's eyes focused on his cheeks, and he laughed. "At least I'm not the only one around here who does that. I have seem him blush a few times, but..."

The fact that Kakashi had ever blushed surprised him, and a bit of the jealousy came back momentarily that he'd missed out on it. "You've seen Senpai blush?"

"Mmhm... I'm sure you'll get the chance to see it to." Iruka smiled and raised and eyebrow. "If you want to?"

There was a question there, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. "I..."

"Iruka, I told you he's not oblivious but he's not great at subtle when he's drunk," Kakashi stuck in, blandly.

Iruka's cheeks flushed, and he rubbed at the scar that cut across them. "It's a little weird, but I..." He cleared his throat and stole a glance at Kakashi. " _We_ wanted to know if uhm..." His words trailed off and the blush burned a brighter red.

Kakashi flipped a page, the sound loud in the otherwise quiet room. "Iruka wants to know if you want to make this a threesome, Tenzou." There was a slight lilt to his voice with the statement.

Tenzou turned and looked at Kakashi then back at Iruka. Obviously he was drunker than he thought.

"Not some perverted thing like he makes it sound," Iruka growled, glaring at Kakashi again. "Not that, that's not you know something that could happen, but uh..." The red of his cheeks crawled down Iruka's face to his neck. "First I thought we could date and get to know each other better."

He was too stunned to be embarrassed by the implied sex though it was starting to sink in that he wasn't passed out somewhere having some insane dream. If that had been the case it probably would have involved sex. Tenzou wondered if he maybe he should get another drink even.

"It might not work out very well, I don't know since it's not something I've ever considered before, but... uhm." Iruka's ears started to turn pink.

"He thinks you're a sexy piece of ass, Kohai." Only the barest hint of a laugh crept into the otherwise flat statement. "He's really into the 'sensei kink' and he thinks having another 'student' would add to the hotness of it."

Tenzou couldn't help the twitch of annoyance at Kakashi's teasing. He turned and glared at his senpai. "Not everyone is as perverted as you." He didn't know why he felt the need to defend Iruka except that it seemed extremely unlikely.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "You don't know Iruka, he is a kinky kinky man. This was _all_ his idea. You should see him in bed he gets really wild when I call him sensei and when I asked him what he thought about you..." He let the sentence trail off, a slow smirk tugging at his lips.

Rolling his eyes and turning back to Iruka, Tenzou shook his head. "Why do you put up with him?" A more important question right then seemed to be 'why would _he_ want to'. He admired Kakashi, and the man was unquestionably good looking, but he was also a pain in the ass. They fought, and they didn't, and he climbed  under Tenzou's skin faster than anyone else so there was no guarantee it'd even work in a relationship. On top of that Kakashi kept nearly everyone at arms length, even his friends to the point that Tenzou wasn't sure some days if he really knew the man. It was a little dizzying and only a little because of the alcohol, but he felt a little more sober at the thought.

Iruka, red faced, rubbed at the scar on the bridge of his nose, his thumb and forefinger following it across his cheeks. "I'm starting to wonder why I do and it's fine if you say no--" he sighed, a hint of amusement in his voice, "--but you should probably sleep here tonight." Standing, Iruka walked over and leaned down to whisper in Kakashi's ear.

Kakashi smiled, turned his head and kissed Iruka's lips, and then stood up and pulled the chunin towards the bedroom, turning the light off as they left.

Tenzou pulled the throw off the back of the couch, adjusted the couch pillows around, and did the best to make himself comfortable. It had never been his intention to get in the way, but... maybe he wasn't. Closing his eyes, he let the heavy sleep of too much booze pull at him. Maybe... maybe it could work.


End file.
